By: Traveon Anderson
In Ruston, LA, football is a centerpiece of the small city. The sport infects the young minds of children and stays with them though grade school and hopefully until they hear their name being called in the NFL Draft. This city is also home to Louisiana Tech, also known as La Tech. As spring is coming to a conclusion, La Tech held its annual spring game, and showed promise for the upcoming season. The Bulldogs looked to improve upon their 4th place finish standing in Conference-USA, and the spring game provided Bulldog fans with much needed hope. Overall, the spring game was relatively low scoring and it finished with the White team pulling out a ten point victory over the Blue team for a final score of 16-6. Offensively, the Bulldogs remained consistent as both teams combined for 652 yards of total offense.
The quarterback situation can be deemed interesting, as both White and Blue team quarterbacks shined in the spring game. Redshirt freshman, Elijah Walker went 4 for 5 in the passing game, as well as adding a touchdown to his resume. However, his stellar performance was cut short due to a shoulder injury suffered in the game. Walker showed extreme prowess when asked to stretch the field on “money plays”. Once he entered the game, Walker strung together impressive drives, and managed to accrue nine points for the team, on two drives. The takeaways from his performance can deemed minimal, but if you analyze the game, he proved to be the best quarterback in the rotation. Walker was faced with passing against a defense that is loaded with talent, as well as making plays against All-American, Amik Robertson. Along with Walker, starting quarterback J’Mar Smith proved to be a stout play caller, and finished the game with 113 passing yards with 34 total passes. Running back is also a position that seems to be gaining much needed clarity as well. Although a long and tedious battle with cancer halted Jaqwis Dancy’s performance last season, he proved to any doubters that he was a viable candidate to be named the starting running back. As the spring game progressed, Dancy rushed for a team high 78 yards on 12 carries, with 3 or more of these runs accumulating as least 10 yards.
Defensively, the linebacker core is proving to be one of the most dominant in the country. Coach Holtz explained that this group of linebackers is one of the most fundamentally sound groups he has had in almost a decade. The Bulldogs even managed to add the National JUCO Player of the Year, Connor Taylor as well. The leading tacklers came in the form of Dae’von Washington and Collin Scott. Washington finished the game with a total of 9 tackles, including a sack for the Blue team. Scott also made his name known for the White team, and produced 8 total tackles as well. Connor Taylor also lived up to the hype in first action with the Bulldogs. He managed to coral 5 total tackles, and proved to be a player than can lead the linebacker core. Once the defense fully grasps the playbook, they have the potential to strike fear into the hearts of opponents.
www.LouisianaGridironFootball.com
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